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Along the Natchez Trace

Monday, May 13, 2013

This One is For the Birds...

There are a lot of field guides on the market and I
know a lot of us have our favorites. My
very first bird field guide was a little book... about 3 x 5". It was one of the "Little Golden
Book" series. I don't remember how
old I was when it was given to me, but I know that I wasn't nearly as young as
my own kids were when they received their first bird book.... they were hardly more than infants.

Eventually I got the Peterson Field Guide to the
Birds, and from there my library of field guides quickly expanded. The Peterson series has field guides to everything
from the clouds and the constellations to animal tracks (and scat), flowers,
ferns... you name it!

Then when I was in the recreation and wildlife program
in college I acquired more technical books. Donald J. Borrors book of insects was one of
my favorites... I mean, really, with a name like that, how could you not like
it as a reference for insects?

Newcomb's Wildflower Guide surpassed the Peterson
guides for being "user friendly".
Years ago it was difficult to find a good field guide for butterflies
and moths, but somewhere in storage I have a long out-of-print book with decent
color plates... enough to get me by at the time. Later I think Dover publications came out with a
guide... and then... wow! Kauffman, Peterson etc etc...

When David Sibley first published his bird field guide
it was a full-size book... big and too
cumbersome for easy use in the field.
But I think it was one of the first major breaks we made from our old
Petersons. As time went on, Bill found
that he likes to use the National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of
North America. And now that the
Sibley's are broken down into Eastern and Western USA
(and much easier to handle) that has been my choice.

As soon as we buy a new field guide, we take it to
Kinko's and have the binding cut off and a spiral binding put on...makes it a LOT easier to use in the field.

When we packed our motorhome in early 2001 to travel
the USA
taking along our field guides was a high priority. I have no idea how much they all weighed, but
it had to be considerable. Not only did
we have those, but as we traveled to new places, we'd buy field guides
pertinent to that region. Eventually we were overwhelmed with books and
resorted to putting all but those we thought we'd be using soon in our storage
place in Ohio. I have books on wildlife in Alaska and along the northwest Pacific coast
stored there that maybe someday I'll get to use again..

The internet and Google have really alleviated much of
the problem of "too many books".
Now we carry only about a dozen field guides with us. And...
yes... at least 4 of those are for the birds.

One really great book we have is The Birder's
Handbook. This one's not a field guide, but has tons of information. Once you recognize what
bird you're seeing, this book tells you much more than a field guide does.After posting yesterday about the woodpeckers
here, I looked up just how long after they hatch those little guys will
fledge.A whopping 30 days!That's a long time for their parents to catch
and carry food to them.Even after they
fledge, they will hang around with their parents throughout the season.(does this sound like modern-day kids to
you?)

Besides giving information about breeding, habitat,
diet, incubation etc, it also has about 250 essays covering all aspects of
avian natural history.Actually, it's
set up so that on the left hand page are all the "bird facts" and the
right hand page has the essays.And
along with the bird "information" you're given the page of the essay
that would pertain to that fact.Pretty
neat, huh?

I am by no means promoting any particular book
here...but I love my books and always
find it interesting to learn what other folks use and why.I like my Kindle to read my mystery novels,
but it will never replace my field guides!

6 comments:

I seldom carry a book in the field anymore. Just too much stuff with my cameras and all. However, my go to guide is Sibley's also. The Birder's Handbook is something I have as well. Great minds and all that... ;)

I use my David Sibley birdbook a lot. It always straightens me out! LOL. Sorry I've missed commenting on your blog...we've been so busy...which will continue for a couple more weeks. Spring stuff, etc. Don't give up on me. Even if I don't have time to comment, I'll be looking at your blog.

About Me

I am Sharon Wallace, my husband is Bill Wethington. In January, 2001 we took possession of our 27' Lazy Daze Class C motor home and began our adventures as full-time RVers. Our first trip out was to volunteer with Alaska State Parks on the Kenai. Since then we have traveled in the lower 48, several Canadian Provinces, and spent several winters in various States of Mexico. We often volunteer at National Refuges throughout the USA. Our interests are varied: Bill has been doing genealogy research for about 25 years; we started geocaching in 2005; we are avid, but amateur birders; I enjoy photography..... the list goes on and on.
As you can see, the title of my blog can mean several different things... take it the way you want ;-)